Updated: Game bundles coming to new Radeon cards

Bundled games are conspicuously absent from the R7 and R9 Radeon cards AMD introduced last week. There is a special edition of the upcoming R9 290X that includes Battlefield 4, but that's it—for now, anyway. According to Fudzilla, AMD's Never Settle game bundle program will be expanded to include the new Radeons.

Although Fudzilla doesn't have any details on what the bundles will entail, it says AMD VP of sales Roy Taylor provided direct confirmation of their existence. Since Taylor has since retweeted a link to the Fudzilla post, the story appears to be legit.

The Never Settle bundles add a lot of value to the Radeon HD 7000 series, and they're still available with some cards. Indeed, I can't help but think that the bundles may be hurting sales of the updated models. This Radeon HD 7970 sells for $300 with three free games, while the comparable Radeon R9 280X has the same asking price but lacks bundled freebies. Depending on the contents of one's Steam library, the 7970 might be the more attractive option. That said, the titles in the Never Settle program aren't as fresh as they once were.

If AMD is bringing game bundles to its newest Radeons, I hope an updated slate of titles will be included. It will be interesting to see if AMD bundles specific games with each card or follows the choose-your-own theme of the most recent Never Settle Forever program. Either way, let's hope the bundles are retroactive, allowing people who have already purchased Radeon R9 and R7 cards to get in on the action.

Update: AMD Graphics and Gaming representative Robert Hallock got in touch with us to clarify that AMD has "no bundles to announce for the new products." However, he also went on to say, "we continue to consider Never Settle bundles as a core component of AMD Gaming Evolved program and intend to do them again in the future." Even if an update to the Never Settle bundles isn't imminent, it looks like AMD will roll one out eventually.